All My Shadows

I've watched the odd episode here and there over the years, but I definitely plan to watch it from beginning to end within the next few months. To me, EIE is to Family as Little House is to The Waltons. EIE/LHOTP were a bit more over-the-top with the emotions, drama, sentimentality. Waltons/Family were more understated. The four together are to the 70s what Dallas/Dynasty/Knots/FC are to the 80s, as far as I'm concerned. It's highly possible we might not have had the 80s soaps without those 70s family dramas.

I'm sure Erica's disco wasn't the only one. There's that ATWT episode from 1978 where the younger characters head to a disco later in the ep. This might be a bit of a stretch, but when watching all of those great GL eps from the latter half of 1979, if Jackie Spaulding didn't proudly but cavalierly mention her condominium at least 5 times per episode, she never mentioned it at all.

Whether one would include it in this conversation or not, Mary Hartman was basically built around exploring and lampooning various 70s fads. Flashing, talking to plants, self-help gurus, faith healers, countrypolitan music, trucker culture, etc. And that's all just in the first half of the series.

I agree with everyone who's said that Erica Kane's heyday was the early 80s. Freshly divorced from Tom, living her best life as a model in NYC, swooping into Pine Valley from time to time to remind the townsfolk that she really is that girl, and laughing at her haters. Truly the high point of La Kane!

I've been plowing through, of all shows, "Car 54, Where Are You?" I randomly watched the Christmas episode back during the holidays and was entertained enough to decide to watch the whole series (it's only 60 episodes). I really like the Nat Hiken brand of manly, chaotic, goofball humor, but then you have the hilarious Beatrice Pons. Plus, Fred Gwynne is surprisingly sexy in this. All in all, good classic sitcom fun, and it's nice to be able to still discover new "old" shows after all these years.

That was a nice, quick episode, and it really shows the strength of the 15-minute format. When those soaps were good, they had to be so easy to watch on a daily basis. Even working people could schedule a coffee break around one preferred show and never miss anything. Remind me - why is Pauline's last name Harris and not Tyrell? Was she Grace's daughter from a previous marriage? I've always seen Grace listed online as "Grace Harris Tyrell," so I assumed that was her maiden name.

I never caught up after early December and really no longer feel like watching the show lol It was a good run.

I remember hearing the full almost 8-minute version of "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" on one of the MusicChoice channels when I was maybe 12 or 13, and it's existed in my mind as a true spiritual moment ever since. She really had her hand on the pulse of the era.

I would say extended episodes for special occasions in general. The Doctors had an extended episode to mark its tenth anniversary in 1973, AMC aired a week's worth of hour-long episodes in the lead-up to RH's premiere. One of my fave 70s soap trends is actually one I first noticed before I ever got into classic soaps - soap stars appearing as panelists/contestants on game shows. Bill and Susan Hayes were judges on The $1.98 Beauty Show, several LA soap stars appeared as panelists on Match Game (as well as Tudi Wiggins from Love of Life!), NYC stars appeared as celebrity contestants on Pyramid, various ABC soap casts played against each other on Family Feud, etc. This one continued into the 80s before slowly tapering out in the 90s. Adding characters to opening title sequences. Y&R led the pack (though it wasn't the first - Never Too Young had done it back in '65), with Ryan's Hope, The Doctors, and Love of Life following suit. Interestingly, outside of Y&R, the big huge hit soaps didn't start doing this until the mid-80s and later. Soaps being studied/discussed on a critical level. The Daytime Emmys, cover articles in mainstream magazines (TV Guide, Newsweek, People, etc), talk show episodes, books, etc.

I'm assuming/hoping that's not the entire sequence? I really hate how one person is very clearly selected to be the "star" of the sequence. No disrespect at all to MP or his fans or Friends or anything, it's just like...how is it not universally understood that it's tacky to clearly focus on one person above all of the rest?

If people have no problem accepting SORAS, then how is it any different? When Jacob Young played JR, were we supposed to believe that Dixie slept with Adam and gave birth to JR when she was 10?

I love Tom/Erica, but I don't think they were meant to be together in the end. Erica, to me, represented what the young, immature Tom wanted. He was the handsome, masculine football player, and she was young, petite, beautiful, glamorous - the perfect football player's girlfriend/wife. Their relationship was more superficial than anything else when you consider how different their values were and that they wanted different things for the future. Once they drifted apart and grew up a little, Tom finally accepted that Erica would never be the wife he wanted her to be, and Erica realized he wasn't going to help her on her road to stardom, but they could still be flirty and fun with each other from time to time. Idk, I think the love of Erica's life was Erica. None of the men ever loved her as much as she loved herself, but she kept looking for the one who could.

And the thing is - this never stopped. Any time I'd watch an act or two of DAYS just to see how utterly ridiculous it still is, if there was a Doug/Julie moment, then it was a DOUG AND JULIE MOMENT like all Doug/Julie moments going back to 1970. Those two were so in love with each other, but it was a love that still felt new, no matter how many years had gone by. People can say what they want about Luke and Laura being daytime's signature couple, but I believe Doug and Julie are a better fit for that title.

I just shared my thoughts in the AMC thread, but AM was nice eye candy and a decent enough actor for his role/purpose on the show. I wish they'd done more with him - they really just kinda stuck him with the Di/Dixie mess that did no one any favors. He was so young, and I would assume fairly healthy.

RIP Alec Musser. His Del was barely there, and he was merely a Soap Star shoehorn, but it's still so sad that we keep losing these 2000s actors at such young ages. He seemed like a nice guy. It's a stretch for me to believe that this girl would move to Santa Barbara, CA, and become Eden Capwell within months of leaving AMC. Re: Trey Kenyon. I liked Trey and wished they hadn't made him a villain right out of the gate. Once he ditched the glasses and grew his hair out, he was a little cutie, and Sam Page was quite charismatic. One of my least favorite go-to plots is introducing long-lost relatives or revealing familial connections merely to make the new family member a villain when he/she could add something great to the canvas. Josh could have been a son of Mark's, but they could have done that story a few years earlier by making Trey his son. It's been a while since I've sat down and thought about what I'd want to be my present-day AMC cast, and I feel like a reformed Trey might be part of it.

Surprised the classic example of Dorothy Lyman vs. Jill Larson as AMC's Opal hasn't been mentioned yet. Both very talented actresses (with Lyman having the edge) portraying an entertaining character that added much to the canvas, but they had different roles, different connections, different motivations, etc. to the point where, out of respect for both actresses, we almost talk about them like they actually were two different characters ("Opal Gardner" vs. just "Opal").

This renews my faith in democracy.

Someone must have gotten them completely in order, because it now clumsily mentions her winning two Daytime Emmys for OLTL. I have a "Where were they then?" featuring Bryan Dattilo affecting a horrendous Mississippi accent for a 1991 guest role on In the Heat of the Night

I think the dead leaves opening looks so muddy and mute because we have mostly cruddy quality videos of it. When they released those episodes on DVD, it was my first time actually being able to see trees in it lol The concept of finding the light while covered in darkness is great, though, almost the opposite of EON's light gradually giving away to darkness. As a soap theme/graphics enthusiast, GL will always be interesting because of how many different themes and title cards it went through. My #1 fave will always be the orange Fire Island lighthouse from 74-75, with the full orchestral La Lumiere theme - so much so that I have a print of the lighthouse hanging in my house. In the modern era, it Hold On to Love is the clear champ, but I do love the very last arrangement of My Guiding Light (I call it the New Edition version lol). I read years ago online (John Kelly Genovese, I think) that it was just used in print ads in newspapers/magazines in the 50s. Funny they never used a candle motif onscreen since the light originally referred to a lamp in a window.

I love this assessment of Rita, and I agree. Another character that comes to mind is Peyton Place's Betty Anderson, in the early years at least. Those women live in their own minds, and you never really "know" them, if that makes sense. There's always a feeling of they're trying the best they can to "be good," but their very valid needs and desires are in conflict with what people think is "good" for them.

Pluto's Barker Era channel rotated in about 60 half-hour episodes from 1972-1973 throughout the month of December in honor of Bob's 100th birthday. They debuted each weeknight in a two-hour block in primetime, and now they'll just be added to the regular rotation (so we'll get those episodes, jump to 1982-1985, then back to 1972, etc). Truthfully, I was looking forward to seeing more from the beginning, but I wasn't too excited simply because of how few games there were. They started with only five, one of which was an awkward dud, so I figure it would get pretty monotonous pretty quickly. I was very wrong, though, and even with just a small rotation of a handful of games, each episode is still as fun and exciting as any other era (especially once the show gained popularity and the audience became more enthusiastic). An interesting thing, for me at least, is how many black contestants there were right from the very beginning. It's no big deal now, but I think of all of the game shows I've watched from the 60s and 70s, and I'd bet TPIR was the first to have a truly "integrated" contestant base. Hopefully, they dust off some late 70s eps to rotate in. There were close to 40 different games by then, almost all of them classics, and the energy was already electric.

Awesome!! I tried to go to his Twitter, but I guess you have to have an account to even view Tweets on their website now? I have an account, but I only log in to be nosy from time to time lol But yes, it seems like he's doing well. It was pretty scary for a few years.

I will say, my favorite "version" of the theme is the original opening credits cut with flute on the lead. The vocals were only used for the closing credits before the strings version replaced both.

Where has it been stated that it was Charles Paul's wife, Dina Dore? I thought her only real contribution to her husband's industry was composing the original AMC theme (to which their daughter Carlina added lyrics).

Speaking of...have we checked in on Brandon Buddy lately? Is he okay?